Trial begins in 1986 La Mesa slaying

For almost 25 years, the gruesome death of June Marilyn George has remained open and unsolved, an eruption of violence inside a quiet La Mesa home that left only questions and conjecture in its wake.

On Monday in an El Cajon courtroom, a trial began against Marc Jernigan, 44, the man prosecutors allege killed George on Aug. 8, 1986. The trial before El Cajon Superior Court Judge Herbert Exarhos is expected to last several weeks.

George was found in a pool of her own blood in the kitchen of her Mariposa Street house. She was stabbed nearly 80 times about the torso, arms and legs. An autopsy showed she was also stabbed once on the crown of her head, so powerfully the tip of the knife was embedded in her skull.

At the time, Jernigan was 19 and dating George’s 17-year-old daughter, Kathy, according to Deputy District Attorney Jill Schall. The couple had broken up one week before, and on the day of the killing George had helped her daughter close a joint checking account she had with Jernigan.

He was one of several people La Mesa police questioned that day, but he was not arrested. He told detectives he was doing laundry at his apartment, but La Mesa detectives never checked the alibi, Schall said.

The case lay dormant for years until 2000, when a La Mesa detective reopened the case. Three items of evidence that were taken from the home, and which were preserved in evidence, form the core of the case against Jernigan, Schall said.

Blood stains on a bedspread, bathroom towel and a plastic photograph holder in George’s wallet were all tested for DNA matches in the years after the case was reopened. At the time of the slaying, DNA testing was in use but not as widespread as it is now.

The bloodstains on the items all matched Jernigan’s DNA profile, Schall said. In 2006, Jernigan, who was then working as a real estate agent, was arrested and charged with her murder.

His lawyer, Christopher Plourd, told the jury his client is innocent. He said Jernigan was a frequent visitor to the George home to be with the victim’s daughter, and traces of his DNA should be expected to be found there.

Plourd said George also had the DNA of an unidentified person underneath her fingernails, which he said likely got there during the violent struggle. The DNA profile does not match Jernigan’s, he said.

He said a fingerprint found on the plastic photo holder also is not Jernigan’s, and a small amount of DNA found on the holder belongs to a female.

“The truth is we don’t now who killed June George,” Plourd said. “We do know, it wasn’t Mark Jernigan.”